Slow file transfer speeds on *some* machines on our network..

[javiert99]

This one's a mind boggler, no idea what to approach to fix the problem.

We have 4 "stations" each with 5 computers to each user. We transfer gigs of data to our storage server day in day out.

I've got two machines out of my 5 that are dogs when transferring files or deleting files off the storage server. This was the case while our network was a 100baseT setup. I had changed the NIC cards, changed the wiring, even run a new cable directly from our rack's patch panel to my machine. No change. I gave up on it for a while and we've recently upgraded to gigabit ethernet and rewired the entire work area with fresh cat5e cable.

My other 3 machines have received a healthy speed increase, while my two other machines are still dogs. The only common ground I can find between the two slow machines are that they both have 512mb DDR ram, they are both Athlon XP machines (one is a 2800 the other is a 2400). All the machines on our network have the same NIC card except for our newer Athlon 64's which are running the onboard gig nic.

My other three machines that run great are:

Athlon 64 3000 with 512mb ram, onboard 1gb nic
2 Celeron 700's with a Dlink gigabit NIC

Yes, my celerons are outrunning my Athlon XP's. The 64 is running XP, the two celerons are running win2k. We are on a domain server not that I think that makes much of a difference here.

Talked to one of the other guys and his 2800 XP machine (which is configured the sameas mine) also has the same problem.

Sorry it's so longwinded but I can't find any results googling for a resolutoin to this weird problem.

Any suggestions will be tried out. Thanks!

 

[spidey07]

the only thing that really stands out would be cabling problems or maybe speed/duplex? I know you have replaced the cable but unless it is scanned with a Cat5e certifier you can never really be sure that its good. Check the NIC and switch for errors on the port.

Are there any other devices on the network? Just a switch, a server and some PCs?

 

[javiert99]

spidey.. there's a small HP network print server for one USB printer, and about 25-30 machines total on the gigabit switch. The data storage server is needless to say also on that switch. There's a proxy server on the rack serving as our firewall. I've tried interchanging cables with the working machines (close enough to move the cables over) and it doesn't resolve the issue

They are both set to autosense just like the other PC's. After the recabling I know that this machine is on a different port that it was when we were set up for 100 as we rung out the network and actually organized everything this time. Previously the network was setup by someone who really left it a mess.

 

[spidey07]

anyway you can check errors on the port?

Run Qcheck for a throughput test? (google it) You run the program on two different computers and run thruput tests. Basic, down and dirty but does the job.

 

[javiert99]

Ideas on where to check for the errors themselves? The gigabit switch is unmanaged, so not sure where I could look for error reporting.

I'm replying from home right now, I'll check out qcheck in the morning at work and post results.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[javiert99]

Well, found the solution. I'm not sure what it fixes, but it did.

Installed SP2 (aside from hardware, the only variable among the fast transferring XP machines and the slow transferring ones), and now all my machines haul ass on the new gigabit network.

Weird huh?

 

[amdskip]

Wow, that usually has the opposite affect and slows things down. Glad you figured it out.